SPIDER BITE BLUES

Dear Alice,

Last Monday I received my first ever spider bite, and boy was it painful. Don’t worry that’s not it pictured right! I was moving rolls of old carpet in the storeroom behind the garage and… yes, yes, I know, I should have known better. But hey, I grew up in a country (England) where nothing from the insect world penetrates human skin, let alone injects nasty poisonous toxins. Little did I know, but a particularly house-proud white-tailed spider had become rather incensed that I was rearranging her home quite so destructively. She therefore decided to take the only course of action open to her and lashed out all fangs blazing at my leg. Resembling a small mozzy bite at first, by the end of the day, my leg honestly felt like it had been stabbed with a long bread knife. As the toxin began to do it’s worst, my body geared up its defence forces to fight this unwelcome invasion. I began to feel a bit weird and do remember thinking, ‘Hmmm, maybe I should do something about this…’ But like most men I settled for doing very little other than popping an antihistamine, in the vague hope that this might provide the chemical ‘cavalry’ my body was clearly screaming out for. My leg was now generating enough heat to contribute to global warming, but I just carried on working. As all the symptoms were localised in my leg, I was not that concerned for my overall wellbeing. I did of course do a Google search to find out what I could; I quickly learned that my biggest concern from this nasty, but less than lethal type of spider, was Necrotising Arachnidism. This is a condition of ‘persistent and refractory ulceration’ in other words, ugly blistered open wounds that just won’t heal. The types of spiders that most commonly bite Australians, namely the white-tailed spider, the black house spider, huntsmen, wolf spiders and orb-weaving spiders are also the main culprits of this rotting flesh condition. So on the one hand, I was starting to feel a little concerned that if things went bad, I may be in danger of losing my leg. While on the other, my findings confirmed that I was probably not going to die. So with that, I went to bed.

In the morning I was no better, in fact I was worse, and it now really, really hurt, especially to walk on. I rang the doctors and got an immediate appointment. Doctor Ng confirmed the type of spider and all what I had Googled. He prescribed strong antibiotics to fight the potential Necrotising Arachnidism. There was a problem though. These drugs were very closely related to Penicillin, and I’m severly allergic to Penicillin. We decided to take a chance and everyone was put on high alert that I may, at any time, be rushed to hospital suffering serious side effects. This could include such bad swelling of the throat, that I might actually have trouble breathing. I’m pleased to report, no such symptoms materialised, and the antibiotics have, in all honestly, appeared to agree with my system more than most.

So how am I a week later? Well, the redness is down, the swelling is down, bruising is fading, as are the blisters. The pain has gone, and I’m now walking quite normally again. So, I guess I am out of danger, and I can probably stop worrying about any nasty long term prognosis. That said, yesterday Mum cheerily told me about a teacher she knows, who was bitten by a white-tailed spider on her hand. Every year at about the same time, it all swells up again causing the initial massive discomfort to once again return.

I’d stay in England if I were you…

: D